


Grouping

by Wiccy



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 22:54:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wiccy/pseuds/Wiccy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vignette series fic. Victor/Sierra seen through the eyes of Topher Brink.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grouping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [allie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/allie/gifts).



> I pushed the deadline on this so I take responsibility for any and all grammatical errors which might be still be found here-in. It took me forever to decide what to write, but I finally decided that I like the idea of a story made from little snippets of a larger story, especially for this fandom. I hope you enjoy it!

"Sierra."

"Did I fall asleep?" her eyes blinked open and he could see the pupils moving as they brought his face into focus.

"For a little while."

She smiled. "Should I go now?"

"If you like." her smile was returned, though far more falsely, though she had no way of having any idea about that.

She continued to smile as she scooted forward in the chair and then rose to her feet. She traveled the few paces it took to get to the door and pushed it open expectantly. The hallway before her, however, was empty, devoid of the presence of that person for which she was longing and her face fell. She turned back to the young, messy haired blond, her smile now gone.

"Do you know where Victor is? We are going to paint and then have dinner together. He said that he would wait for me." her voice was small, pained, like that of a very young child trying to understand some complex adult situation.

Topher spun around on his heel, away from the various readouts he had been examining to look at her, a faint look of surprise on his face at finding her still there.

"What? Oh, Victor, right, he umm, he had to umm, go out-- for his treatment. He'll be back soon." He ambled his way over to her, quickly gathered her up and shooed her out the door. "You go paint and I'll let him know where you are when he gets back, okay?"

Her smile returned, the bright smile of an easily dissuaded, easily amused toddler. "Okay. I like it when we paint together. He helps me to be my best. I want to always be my best."

Her statement made, as if it revealed some deep, universal truth, she turned away and wandered off down the hallway toward the stairs with her arms lightly swaying at her sides. Topher watched after her as she descended the stairs, back into the kiddie pool, his face suddenly looking overly distraught. His mind turning over the facts of the case as his eyes followed her on her merry little way. His fingers fidgeted at his sides as his mind began to calculate the possibility of this not being seen as his fault.

"This is not good, not good..." he shook his head as he backed once more into the room and closed the door.

~~~~~~~~~~

It was nothing really, or at least anywhere else it would have been nothing. Just two hands brushing, lingering, with fingers tangling together. Arms pulling away from their bodies and toward one another in order to keep the contact as they both moved in opposite directions. Victor away from his 'treatment' and Sierra toward hers. It could almost have been brushed off as a child-like game played in their child-like states, contributed to by the close quarters forced on them by the width of the hallway, had it not been for how they both turned their heads over their shoulders in order to look at the other— the way they had.

The glance hadn't lasted that long, a second perhaps, and then it was over, the contact between their hands ended as their fingers slipped apart and they both continued in the direction of their destination as if nothing had even happened.

A series of tiny gestures that nobody would likely have even noticed, let alone worried over, were it to happen outside these walls. Nothing at all really. Except that they were inside these walls and worse yet, the wicked witch of England had seen it just as clearly as he had. Her eyes had shrank in that squinty British way she had that told Topher and anyone else who cared to notice, that the nothing they had just seen occur was very soon going to be made into something.

This was so not good, so very, very not good. Why was it that nothing always had to happen to him? It just wasn't fair. Never mole hills, always mountains.

~~~~~~~~~~

They were standing at the railing looking down on the day care center as the blank little boys and girls, all happy and trusting in their doll states scurried about from one simple task to the next. Except, that was, for Victor and Sierra, who were standing in the middle of the art room, laughing and smiling at each other like a couple of complete doofuses.

They both had paint all over their hands, faces and necks from the friendly little paint fight they had just concluded and were taking turns playfully pushing at one another until Victor decided to turn it into a tickle Sierra party. She gave a shrieking roar of laughter and took off at a slow run, obviously fully intending Victor to catch her, into one of the other rooms with said doll giving chase.

"What does THAT look like to you?" the sharp British accent cut into his ears.

He opened his mouth and then closed it again, eyes remaining on the fuzzy shape of laughing pair of dolls.

"I'll tell you what it looks like Topher, it looks like grouping! Do you know why it looks like grouping?"

"Because they're in a group?" he tried with a nervous laugh.

She was having none of it. "Because it IS grouping."

He finally turned and looked up at Adelle and immediately wished that he hadn't. He shrank back from the cold, hard, withering look in her eyes. Why did it have to be Victor and Sierra? He actually like them, well, as much as you could like a doll anyway, but that wasn't the point. The point was why did it have to be them?

"It's not my fault!" he put forth urgently. "Everything is done exactly to specified parameters and requirements, just like with all of them. I didn't do anything differently. Their post engagement scans are always clean. They should be clean and clear. Like the freshly wiped newborn baby bottoms they are. I don't know why they're not!"

Her withering look still firmly affixed, she pushed her face in to Topher's, stopping just inches before their noses touched. Her eyes locked with his for a moment before she spoke, her voice was low and menacing as she pushed the words out of her mouth.

"Fix. It."

Then, pulling away from him, turning sharply on her high heel, she half sauntered, half stormed away leaving Topher to worry over his little Victor and Sierra problem.

"This is so, so, so, sooooo not good. We're all going to end up in the attic, I just know it." he mumbled to himself as he turn and fidgeted his way back into his lair.

Below his retreating form, Victor and Sierra emerged once again from the other room, hands laced together and arms swinging between them carefree and happy. Smiling at each other, and completely unaware of the great stress their behavior was causing, they headed off in the direction of the showers.


End file.
